THE history and provenance of the picture known officially as Quimperle - The Goose Girl have always been slightly mysterious. It was acquired by the National Gallery from a Dublin dealer in 1970, two years after Leech's death, and in the years since then has become probably his best-known work, familiar to thousands and a steady favourite with buyers of postcards and reproductions. To many people, in fact, it represents the painter's essence.
Yet the actual evidence linking it with Leech are tenuous, and for years doubts were expressed in private about its authenticity. A few years ago these surfaced into public controversy, which has continued sporadically. Now Denise Ferran's deeply researched book-catalogue William John Leech: an Irish Painter Abroad has appeared and is probably the definitive word on the matter. Raymond Keaveney, Director of the National Gallery, says he accepts her version of the facts, which she presents more or less as follows:
The label on the back of the frame reads Quimperle W.L. and is not in Leech's handwriting. There is no record of him ever exhibiting such a picture and it does not occur in the inventory of his studio after his death: Alan Denson, who knew the painter well, does not mention it in either of his two books on Leech. (Against this, last year Denson agreed in attributing the painting to his old friend). However, Leech did exhibit an untraced work at the RHA in 1917 entitled The Lady and the Trees.
Those who dispute its authenticity point to its obvious resemblance to certain works of a rather obscure English artist named Stanley Royal. This claim is strengthened by the fact that it is painted on a canvas with a Sheffield stamp; there is no proof that Leech ever visited Sheffield or used this type of canvas, whereas Royal worked in the area. Furthermore, Royal's pictures The Lilac Bonnet and Spring Morning among the Bluebells greatly resemble The Goose Girl in style and subject-matter. And I am told that on the immediate outskirts of Sheffield there is a small wooded area known traditionally as the Bluebell Wood.
The costume the girl is Wearing is not, apparently, a Breton one and its connection with Quimperle is quite unproven. The brushwork is not in Leech's usual style, and the romantic, quasi-Symbolist mood is also unlike him. Royal's daughter did not believe that The Goose Girl was painted by her father, but she did admit that she was "struck by the similarity" to his style. So the probability is that it is really a painting by him shown at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool in 1925, entitled Among the Bluebells. The evidence is not quite conclusive, but it is strong. For the moment, however, The Goose Girl hangs in the National Gallery exhibition among Leech's authenticated works.
